Vocation Sunday and the Feast of the Good Shepherd
Mother Magdalen’s vocation to Religious Life began during her time of volunteering in the Crimean war way back in the 1850s. We recall with great affection and gratitude when the then Frances Taylor was received into the Catholic Church while kneeling in the kitchen of Koulali Hospital. (Reference – Sr. Mary Campion’s Life of Mother Magdalen pages 25 & 26)
Mother Magdalen Taylor
It reads: “... and when Easter came with its special lessons and hopes of the Resurrection, to those who were daily ministering amidst scenes of death, Fanny Taylor obeyed His call Who is the Resurrection and the Life and arose to a new spiritual life. On the eve of the first Sunday after Easter – Low Sunday, April 14th, 1855, she was received into the True Fold at Koulali by the Rev. Father Woollett, S.J., Catholic Chaplain at the Camp, who was then assisting the Rev. Father Ronan S.J., the Catholic Chaplain to the Hospital. Then on Good Shepherd Sunday, 4th Sunday after Easter, she made her First Holy Communion, at the hands of Father Ronan.
To its last anniversary, she kept that day as the best of her life, and the Sisters, some of them converts, whom she trained in the religious life, were, and still are accustomed, to claim a Feast on that day and sing their Mother’s favourite hymns – Father Faber’s well-known ‘I am Thy Shepherd true,’ and ‘I met the Good Shepherd but now on the plain.’ She ever held Father Woollett and Father Ronan in grateful esteem and reverence.”
Let us pray for all who desire to deepen their spiritual life in all faiths, remembering especially all who were received into the Catholic Church this Easter and the many children who are making their First Holy communion around this time of year.
As we approach Good Shepherd Sunday on 26th April, let us remember very specially and pray for all who are discerning their vocation to the priesthood and religious life and those already in formation for this way of life.
The Voice of the Shepherd (John 10:1–10): The central theme is recognizing and listening to the voice of Jesus amidst the “deafening noise of the world.” It emphasizes trusting in His voice and not following “strangers.”
Look up the message of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV for the 63rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations. He says, “This is an occasion of grace in which we share some reflections on the interior dimension of vocation, understood as the discovery of God’s free gift that blossoms in the depths of our hearts. Let us explore together the truly beautiful path of life along which the Shepherd guides us – the way of Beauty, of Mutual Awareness, of Trust and Maturation.”